California income tax rates and brackets for 2026

For 2026, California has nine income tax rates: 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 9.3%, 10.3%, 11.3% and 12.3%. Each one applies only to the part of your taxable income that falls inside its bracket. On top of them, taxable income over $1 million pays the 1% Behavioral Health Services Tax, which was called the Mental Health Services Tax before 2025, so the top rate is 13.3%.

The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) adjusts the brackets every year for inflation. It measured California inflation from June 2025 to June 2026 at 3.4%, published the 2026 schedules below in its October 2026 Tax News, and says the complete 2026 rates and exemption amounts will be on its website in late December. The joint brackets are exactly twice the single ones, and there is no lower rate for capital gains: FTB says all capital gains are taxed as ordinary income.

As an example, a single filer with $120,000 of taxable income in 2026 is in the 9.3% bracket, but does not pay 9.3% on all of it. The tax is $3,310.88 on the first $75,197 plus 9.3% of the remaining $44,803, which comes to $7,477.56, about 6.2% of taxable income, before credits.

For 2025, a California resident who is single or head of household, under 65 and with no dependents has to file if gross income was over $22,941 or California adjusted gross income was over $18,353. For a married or RDP couple, both under 65 with no dependents, the figures are $45,887 and $36,711, and the income of both spouses counts even if they file separately. The thresholds are higher with age and dependents, and FTB updates them every year.

Nonresidents and part-year residents use the same thresholds, measured on income from all sources, and file if any of that income came from California. Below the thresholds you still have to file if you owe certain taxes, such as alternative minimum tax or tax on an IRA or other retirement plan. And you need a return to get back California tax withheld from your pay, or to claim CalEITC.

Whichever form you use, California starts from your federal return: FTB tells you to complete Form 1040 first and take your figures from it. Generally use the same filing status as on your federal return; registered domestic partners file as married/RDP. Head of household filers must attach form FTB 3532, and FTB denies the status without it. If you e-file, the software picks the form for you.

A California return for a calendar year is due April 15 of the following year, so 2026 returns are due April 15, 2027. FTB grants an automatic six-month extension to file, to October 15, 2027, with no form to send, but it is not an extension to pay: tax owed is still due April 15, 2027. For 2025 returns the dates were April 15 and October 15, 2026, and a due date that falls on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day.

Estimated tax is front-loaded in California. If you expect to owe at least $500 for 2026 after withholding and credits, or $250 if married/RDP filing separately, you pay 30% of the required amount with the first installment, 40% with the second, nothing with the third and 30% with the fourth. A nonresident or new resident who had no California tax liability for 2025 does not have to make 2026 payments.

The required amount for 2026 is the smaller of 90% of your 2026 tax or 100% of your 2025 tax, including alternative minimum tax. If your 2025 California AGI was over $150,000, or $75,000 if married/RDP filing separately, the 2025 figure becomes 110%; if your 2026 California AGI is $1 million or more, or $500,000 filing separately, you must base the payments on your 2026 tax.

California has its own standard deduction: $5,706 for single or married/RDP filing separately and $11,412 for joint, head of household and surviving spouse returns in 2025, rising to $5,900 and $11,800 for 2026. Instead of deductions for personal exemptions, California gives exemption credits that come straight off the tax: for 2025, $153 for each taxpayer ($306 on a joint return) and $475 for each dependent; for 2026, $158, $316 and $491.

Three credits are aimed at lower incomes. CalEITC and the Young Child Tax Credit are refundable, so they can pay cash back even when no tax is due. The renter’s credit is nonrefundable, so it only reduces tax you owe.

The July 2025 tax law (Public Law 119-21) created federal deductions, for 2025 through 2028, for qualified tips, overtime pay, interest on certain car loans, and an extra deduction for people 65 and older. California did not adopt them. Its tax code now generally follows the Internal Revenue Code as of January 1, 2025, the federal law came later, and FTB’s analysis answers “No” on conformity for all four.

So on a California return, tips and overtime pay stay taxable, personal car loan interest is not deductible, and there is no extra senior deduction. California’s own senior exemption credit, $153 for each taxpayer 65 or older for 2025, still applies. Bills to add California deductions or exclusions for tips and overtime were introduced in 2026 and held in committee.

Other differences come up often. California does not tax Social Security benefits or California lottery winnings. It allows no foreign tax credit and no foreign earned income exclusion, and a tax treaty that covers only federal income tax does not lower California tax, so wages a treaty exempts federally can still be taxed by California. These adjustments are made on Schedule CA, which turns federal AGI into California AGI.

State Disability Insurance (SDI) is not part of the income tax return. It is a payroll deduction: employers withhold it from employees’ wages. It pays for Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave benefits, for example when an illness, injury or pregnancy that is not work-related keeps you from working, or when you take time to care for a seriously ill family member or bond with a new child.

The 2026 SDI rate is 1.3%, up from 1.2% in 2025. Since January 1, 2024 there has been no taxable wage limit and no maximum, so it applies to all subject wages: $1,300 on $100,000 of wages in 2026, and $2,600 on $200,000.

Because there is no cap, there is no longer excess SDI to claim back on your California return when you worked for two employers. FTB removed that line from the return starting with 2024.

California taxes residents on all their income, wherever it comes from, and nonresidents only on income from California sources. Part-year residents are taxed on everything they received while residents and on California-source income for the rest of the year, and they file Form 540NR. On that form your tax is first figured on all your income as if you were a full-year resident, and that effective rate is then applied to your California taxable income.

You are a resident if you are in California for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, or if California is your domicile and you are away only for a temporary purpose. Domicile is the place you intend to return to, and changing it takes three things: leaving the old one, physically moving to the new place and living there, and showing by your actions that you mean to stay permanently or indefinitely. Under FTB’s 2025 residency guidelines you are presumed to be a resident for any year in which you spend more than nine months in California, and FTB will not give a written opinion on your residency, because it is a question of fact.

FTB looks for your closest connections: where your spouse and children live, your home, driver’s license, car registration, voter registration, bank accounts, doctors and professional licenses, and how much time you spend in and out of California. The strength of the ties matters more than their number, and declaring residency in another state while your closest ties stay in California does not end California residency.

For 2026, every LLC organized, registered or doing business in California owes an $800 annual tax, and keeps owing it each year until the LLC is canceled, even in a year with no business. It is due by the 15th day of the fourth month of the tax year, which is April 15 for a calendar-year LLC; a new LLC pays its first one by the 15th day of the fourth month from the date it filed with the Secretary of State. An LLC with total California income of $250,000 or more also owes a separate LLC fee that rises with income.

Corporations incorporated, registered or doing business in California pay a minimum franchise tax, also $800 for 2026. A newly incorporated or qualified corporation does not owe the minimum for its first taxable year, but the first-year exemption that new LLCs had applied only to tax years beginning in 2021, 2022 and 2023.